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[5]
And he had sons by Andromeda: before he came to
Greece he had Perses, whom he left behind with
Cepheus （ and from him it is said that the kings of Persia are descended）; and in Mycenae he had Alcaeus and Sthenelus and Heleus and Mestor and
Electryon,1 and a daughter Gorgophone, whom Perieres married.2

Alcaeus had a son Amphitryon and a daughter Anaxo by Astydamia, daughter of Pelops; but
some say he had them by Laonome, daughter of Guneus, others that he had them by Hipponome,
daughter of Menoeceus; and Mestor had Hippothoe by Lysidice, daughter of Pelops. This
Hippothoe was carried off by Poseidon, who brought her to the Echinadian Islands, and
there had intercourse with her, and begat Taphius, who colonized Taphos and called the
people Teleboans, because he had gone far3 from his native land. And Taphius had a
son Pterelaus, whom Poseidon made immortal by implanting a golden hair in his head.4 And to Pterelaus were born sons, to wit, Chromius, Tyrannus,
Antiochus, Chersidamas, Mestor, and Eueres.

Electryon married Anaxo, daughter of Alcaeus,5 and begat a daughter
Alcmena,6 and sons, to wit, Stratobates, Gorgophonus, Phylonomus,
Celaeneus, Amphimachus, Lysinomus, Chirimachus, Anactor, and Archelaus; and after these he
had also a bastard son, Licymnius, by a Phrygian woman Midea.7

Sthenelus had daughters, Alcyone and Medusa, by Nicippe,8 daughter of Pelops; and he had afterwards a son Eurystheus,
who reigned also over Mycenae. For when
Hercules was about to be born, Zeus declared among the gods that the descendant of Perseus
then about to be born would reign over Mycenae, and Hera out of jealousy persuaded the Ilithyias to retard Alcmena's
delivery,9
and contrived that Eurystheus, son of Sthenelus, should be born a seven-month child.10

1 As to the sons of Perseus and Andromeda,
compare Scholiast on Hom. Il. xix.116; Scholiast on Ap. Rhod., Argon.
i.747. The former agrees with Apollodorus as to the five sons born to Perseus
in Mycenae, except that he calls one of
them Aelius instead of Heleus; the latter mentions only four sons, Alcaeus, Sthenelus,
Mestor, and Electryon.

3 The name Teleboans
is derived by the writer from “telou ebē” (τηλοῦἔβη), “he went far.” The same
false etymology is accepted by Tzetzes, Scholiast on Lycophron 932;. Strabo
says （Strab. 10.2.20） that the
Taphians were formerly called Teleboans.

5 Thus
Electryon married his niece, the daughter of his brother Alcaeus （see above,
Apollod. 2.4.5）. Similarly Butes is said to
have married the daughter of his brother Erechtheus （Apollod. 3.15.1）, and Phineus is reported to have been betrothed to
the daughter of his brother Cepheus （Apollod.
2.4.3）. Taken together, these traditions perhaps point to a custom of
marriage with a niece, the daughter of a brother.

6 According to another account, the mother of
Alcmena was a daughter of Pelops （Eur. Herc.
210ff.）, her name being variously given as Lysidice
（Scholiast on Pind. O. 7.27(49);; Plut.
Thes. 6） and Eurydice （Diod.
4.9.1）.

8 According to other accounts, her name was Antibia （Scholiast on Hom. Il.
xix.119） or Archippe （Tzetzes, Chiliades ii.172,
192）.

9 Compare Hom. Il.
19.95-133, where （v. 119） the Ilithyias, the goddesses of
childbirth, are also spoken of in the plural. According to Ov.
Met. 9.292ff., the goddess of childbirth （Lucina, the Roman equivalent
of Ilithyia） delayed the birth of Herakles by sitting at the door of the room
with crossed legs and clasped hands until, deceived by a false report that Alcmena had
been delivered, she relaxed her posture and so allowed the birth to take place. Compare
Paus. 9.11.3; Ant. Lib. 29, according to
whom it was the Fates and Ilithyia who thus retarded the birth of Herakles. Among the
Efiks and Ibibios, of Southern Nigeria, “the ancient custom still obtains that
locks should be undone and knots untied in the house of a woman who is about to bear a
babe, since all such are thought, by sympathetic magic, to retard delivery. A case was
related of a jealous wife, who, on the advice of a witch doctor versed in the mysteries
of her sex, hid a selection of padlocks beneath her garments, then went and sat down
near the sick woman's door and surreptitiously turned the key in each. She had
previously stolen an old waist-cloth from her rival, which she knotted so tightly over
and over that it formed a ball, and, as an added precaution, she locked her fingers
closely together and sat with crossed legs, exactly as did Juno Lucina of old when
determined to prevent the birth of the infant Herakles” （D.
Amaury Talbot, Woman's Mysteries of a Primitive People, the Ibibios of Southern
Nigeria （London, etc. 1915）, p. 22）. See
further Taboo and the Perils of the Soul, pp. 294ff.

Apollodorus. Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. Includes Frazer's notes.

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